Fishing for Meditation – Going fishing is a great way to disconnect, relax, and spend time with family and friends. It turns out that fishing is good for your mental health in a number of interesting ways.
There’s a lot more to fishing than just putting out your line and waiting for the big one. Because fishing’s benefits are so subtle, we don’t always notice how they improve our overall emotional health.
I grew up in Florida, so I thought all you had to do to go fishing was call up your friends, load up the boat with beer, bait, and fishing gear, and head out on the water. At least in part, I was wrong.
Fishing for mental health and well-being is a fairly new idea, but it is a good one. Here are the top five ways that fishing is good for your mental health.
Key Takeaways
- Fishing can be good for your mental health in a number of interesting ways. It offers a chance to disconnect, relax, and spend time with family and friends.
- Fishing requires mindfulness, which means being fully present in the moment. This can help calm your mind and reduce stress and anxiety.
- Mindfulness is important for mental health because it allows you to focus on one thing at a time, reducing the tendency to get distracted by the many things that can happen in daily life.
- Fishing can be a form of meditation, allowing you to forget about the stresses of everyday life and focus on the present moment.
- Fishing is good for your mind and body. It provides a low-impact workout that can help improve physical fitness, and the mental benefits of fishing can help improve overall emotional well-being.
Mindfulness
Many of us start fishing for the most obvious reason: we like to catch fish. But after being out on the water for a while, there’s usually another, less obvious reason to go back to the dock or boat.
Half the time, we don’t even care if they’re biting because we just want to be out in the middle of nowhere… tucked away and quiet.
Being on the water gives you time to think and peace. Whether you’re fishing with a few friends or by yourself, you might be looking for peace and quiet. This is especially true once you find your favorite fishing spot.
When we go fishing, we can be fully in the moment and often forget about the noises of everyday life. You can learn to be more aware by going fishing. Mindfulness has huge benefits for mental health when it is practiced often.
Mindfulness can be thought of as being fully present at the moment. When you’re being mindful, you put all of your attention on what you’re doing, which calms your mind.
When we fish, we have to be in the moment and pay attention to how it feels. When we are busy with the here and now, we don’t think about anything else.
You can think of mindfulness as the complete opposite of the American nonsense of “doing six or eight things at once.” Mindfulness is important for mental health, but it’s becoming less and less common in everyday life.
Why is being mindful important for mental health?
Mindfulness, according to the American Psychological Association, is:
“…a moment-by-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment. Mindfulness is a state, not a trait, in this way.”
Why is it important to know what’s going on around you right now? How does this help your mental health?
You can’t focus if you’re too busy, which is the case for many of us these days. Over time, you will get stuck if you try to cram 75 things into each day.
But if you are mindful, you only pay attention to one thing at a time. For your mental health, you pay attention to your line and what is around you when you go fishing. You don’t get distracted by the many things that can happen at the office or at home.
Mindfulness is good for your mind and body.
Practicing mindfulness on a regular basis (e.g., by going fishing) is good for your mental health in the long run. Stress and anxiety go down when you focus.
Spending time letting your mind focus on just one thing gives it a boost. Over time, being more focused can not only make you feel less anxious, but it can also help you stop thinking bad things about yourself or your situation.
Emotional control is also helped by being able to focus and take a break. A mind that has had time to rest and recharge and has been able to focus on fishing for a few hours without being interrupted can think more clearly and make better decisions.
The results can be seen in how well people make decisions when they have to make hard choices and how few rash decisions they make. This is the stuff that keeps your mind healthy.
In the same way, you’d think about your body, think about your mind.
When you think about how important it is to concentrate and rest, you can think of your mind in ways that are usually reserved for your body. Everyone knows that physical rest is important after long periods of hard work.
Your mind is the same. A day of mindfulness where you focus on catching fish and watching the water is like a day of relaxing on the couch to give your body time to recover after running a marathon or unloading a moving truck.
Taking time to refresh your mind regularly pays off. There are benefits even if you don’t do it every day. A few hours of fishing once a week or maybe twice a month will keep you in the loop.
It is very important to take time to let your mind focus on one thing while staying in the present. Fishing is a great way to give yourself that time.
Fishing for Meditation: Fishing Benefits for Your Mindfulness
To fish, you have to pay attention and concentrate. This focus and concentration take our minds off the everyday stresses and inner conflicts we all face.
Studies have shown that being in nature and doing fun things like fishing can make you feel less stressed.
[1] We even know that fly fishing helps our veterans deal with the effects of PTSD.
[2] How’s that for a way to keep your mind healthy?
Anglers have to do a lot of things at the same time. These include keeping an eye on their line, looking around the water, and being ready for that big catch. In a way that is similar to mindfulness, you forget about everything else to focus on the task at hand. This lets your mind relax.
I’ve always loved to fish. I used to say that the only time I liked fishing was when the fish were biting.
My opinion has changed. I don’t care anymore if they’re biting or not (to a point). It’s fun to catch fish, but these days I just want to be out on the water with my line out and forget about everything else. If you’re a newbie at fishing, check out these great American made fishing reels to get you started.
How Persistence and Dedication Affect Mental Health Fishing
To be successful at fishing, you have to work hard, pay attention to details, and keep trying. You feel better about yourself when you take pride in getting ready for a day on the water and practicing the skills that lead to a catch.
As a general rule, an activity that makes us feel more confident in our skills helps us deal with our own feelings of doubt and insecurity. Fishing can help people feel proud of themselves because it helps them feel good about themselves.
What’s wrong with that?
